StarFox 2 was to be the much-anticipated sequel to StarFox, one of the fastest-selling games of all time (prelaunch orders for 1.7 million copies...). StarFox 2, with a 16 megabit ROM capacity and a SuperFX2 coprocessor, was set to offer more complex action than the original, but never came out. The reasons for this are unclear to this day, though stories from Dan Owsen as relayed to me by VanBrain on Nsider claim the game wasn't "good enough" for release.

However, a Dylan Cuthbert interview claims that the game WAS finished, but it was the advent of the N64 that caused the game to get canned.

Many of StarFox 2's elements were incorporated into StarFox 64. Most of these pictures show an "all-range mode" type of play, plus many other vehicles. There is a two-player "versus mode," and, according to the StarFox 64 Player's Guide, it also had Star Wolf.

In the last few years at least 2 incomplete versions of the game have appeared online. The first is little more than a very buggy alpha version of the game which includes a 2-player mode. The second is a beta that is still incomplete, lacks a 2-player mode, but has most of the sound and features working. Both are smaller than the finished game was to be.

Credit to JayDrive for these scans from a U.K. magazine reporting on StarFox2 with pictures from the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show. Once upon a time there was no such thing as E3, and the biannual CES was the place to be for video games.

Nintendo Power Volume 69I REALLY hope this was preliminary art. What happened to Andross' eye? Notice that there are two new characters on the title screen. In this picture one is a sheep while the other is a lynx. Both were female pilots, according to the issue. Do you suppose the lynx was the inspiration for Katt Monroe in StarFox 64?

Diehard Gamefan Volume 3 Issue 3An friend of mine told me she saw a dog character in early shots of the game. I hadn't until I came across this (low-quality) screen shot. It looks like the sheep was replaced by a dog with a big red bow. Could the dog be an inspiration for Bill Grey in StarFox 64?